Year: 2003

  • Our kinda modern

    first up, a very happy friendship (yester) day to all of you…though to be honest, there shouldnt be a day for this, friends are forever… oh, well, those poor archies guys have to find ways to make money, dont they..hehei have finally finished ‘india unbound’, and am now reading roald dahl’s supposedly best stories, and to be very honest, after 110 pages out of 360 odd, it still hasnt delivered the kind of stuff it promises on the back cover, so it is not on my medialist…!!
    there are some guys outside my office protesting against the government for something, regular stuff in india, but the difference today is that they have stripped down to their undies…hehe, gives a whole new meaning to ‘india unbound’..yeah, speaking of that book, stll a couple of good points to share…one, about our concept of modern….our modern is mostly ‘western’… whatever is accepted there gets accepted here too…. from pizzas to music videos, oit is ironic that there is a jam packed crowd for every performance of indian maestros in the west, but here, its is only a niche audience….i dont think quality is the chief criterion we employ when we choose goods, services or whatever, there is basically a bias towards whatever is western, and thus we tend to kill whatever is homegrown, yes there are brands that survive, but i believe they entered the indian consumer’s brain before the concept of ‘western-modern’ came about……the other point, tomorrow’s post….meanwhile
    manuscrypts trivia
    “If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.” – Carl Sagan

  • If its ok with them…

    it seems the quest for happiness is dogging everyone, (read wonderbug’s post today)…like i wrote a couple of days back, ‘true happiness’ is so dynamic, that we only have just enough time to experience it, so defining it is way way off….Carrying on from yesterday, with most ‘sparks’ from the book i am reading now…..i doubt if our generation can produce a bhagat singh…..who would die for a cause…. just a thought, who knows what his intentions were, maybe he measured his happiness by his martyr status, and made a gamble….but i doubt.. i am still a fan, and believe in the nobility of his intentions…we have produced individuals who would endure for a cause they believe in, the cause is usually money…the college dropout who is the richest guy in the world, the petro giants whose dad started out as a petrol pump attendant in yemen… only stating the rule, not the exceptions…. not taking anything away from their achievements,but the motive..and so it is that most heroes today are industrial giants, and not gandhis and nehrus…again the rule, not the exception….so , society has changed in terms of aspirations and therefore motives…i am not talking of sailors who went in search of treasures, i am talking of commonfolk…where did it all start, hmm, not here, though we had our tatas and birlas, the industrial revolution really happened in europe and america…is that why we always look for endorsements from there…why we compare our quality of life with them, love the coke, mtv lifestyle…dont mistake me, i am not talking swadeshi here, just wondering….prof. amartya sen lauded kerala yesterday for its high life expectancy, low infant mortality rate etc..but with all that, kerala is on a downhill now, the attitude hasnt undergone much change…kerala does have all the indeces of quality of life in a position, where it compares favorably, even with the west…but…..to be continuedmeanwhile, all you guys interested in a kind of lateral thinking, check out this have a great weekend, everyone, not before you check out
    manuscrypts trivia
    “You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.”~ Albert Einstein

  • Its all about money, honey?

    That was borrowed from the tagline of indiainfoline.com, i dont see it much these days, wonder if they still use it…but that also is what i am going to write on today…i am reading ‘india unbound’ by gurcharan das(see my medialist), almost finished it…and i am able to relate yesterday’s post to some of the stuff in the book…so, will continue on the path….but i believe, i will be backtracking by the time i finish the entire series..today’s generation, as compared to the ones earlier, gets a lot of money related happiness, mostly because of rising consumerism, which has almost enveloped the more developed countries and is rapidly aadvancing in india…we like to have things literally at our fingertips, and the mouse is a powerful tool.. we order books, gifts and many other things under the sun online, it definitely is convenient….the mobile is also a powerful tool, most of the restaurants here, have introduced home delivery, again the fingertips can get the job done….result of all this is a decrease in the kind of social interaction we grew up with…and whether it is online purchases or home delivery, there is definitely an extra price we pay for it……the BPOs (call centers, in regular parlance) that are spreading like a virus, not necessarily with the same dire consequences, hehe, they are either making calls or receiving calls,giving customers from far flung corners of the globe, info about a variety of products and services….so we have convenience, better economies coz these call center employees make good money, so more disposable income….but are we losing ourselves in the turn of the merry go round, why do we have waves of nostalgia? why do we turn to our blogs as outlets? a query, can our generation produce a bhagat singh or an aung san suu kyi, who would endure purely for what they believe in …..we have, but in a different mould, more on that tomorrow…. leaving you with
    manuscrypts trivia
    ‘If somebody gives you a free ticket for a tour, you cannot fight with the person because of the troubles you meet while on the journey.’….leena chandavarkar, on life

  • Is this evolution?

    i read a post in someone’s blog yesterday, i think it was wonderbug (new entrant in bloggers park), old post but good food for thought, the subject was “Has our self-created society and its by-products ruined our personal peace and happiness?”…this is my version of the same argument…. to start with, the concept of society, as we see it, is extremely dynamic….every time we say ‘times have changed’, society is implicitly present….at the same time personal peace and happiness is a subjective issue and itself changes with time….an example materialistically, i was happy with cassettes 5 years back, now i hunt for cds….it makes me happier…in terms of other happiness, 5 years back, i could stare at stars and feel peace, now the scene would also include my wife..hehe…change again….
    i will again choose social interaction as an arbitrary parameter to judge the changes in society, judge is not the appropriate word, coz the judgement is too subjective to be of any use….mobiles, the internet etc has reduced interaction as we used to know it, but it has also brought in chat and blog communities, which transcend geographical barriers, good, you say?, but it also has brought down long chats with siblings, neighbourhood friends etc… isnt that bad?..a balance, but how many of us are able to achieve it, so, is it all that good, or all that bad??joint families are almost extinct, nuclear families are in…extended families are also a minor statistic…i can go to all the entertainment spots with just my wife for company , happy ? yes….but the sense of security and the good feeling arising out of the dependancies and mutual harmony and sometimes lil disharmonies in a joint family is thrown out of the window? a balance again, sorry boss, in this case it is almost impossible….
    yes, it is not possible to get everything in life, but it is also not possible to not think about opportunity costs and ‘what might have beens’…a kid born today will not miss the joy of being cuddled and pampered by grandparents, because he might not experience it at all, the grandparents will not miss pizza coz they have not experienced it at all….i will miss both 🙂 …..but thats not something exclusive to me or my generation…lucky kids?? because they can buy most of the stuff that gives them happiness..or lucky grandparents ?? coz they are happy with the simple pleasures in life…..whos to decide??thats life, the most undefinable, unpredictable, unfathomable thing i have come across……almost done, but not before
    manuscrypts trivia
    got it from one of my egroups…F-aiku: A Japanese PoemI tried my hand at poetry the other day. It’s called “Happiness”. And it goes like this…Free beer,Naked women,Paid vacation,Free beer,Happiness.Some of my poet friends suggested I turn it into haiku. A haiku, basically, is a Japanese poem that contains 17 syllables. Mine had 16. And no matter how hard I tried, I still couldn’t make it a haiku. So now it reads like this…Free beer,Naked women,Paid vacation,Free beer,Happiness.Fuck haiku.:o)- vikramwww.vikramchauhan.com

  • A whole lot of crap

    i am not flattered by the attention i seem to be getting from miscellaneous poeple on the net, who send me mails everyday, telling me to-take pills, so i can reduce 40 kilos in 5 days-again take pills, so i can increase the size of my u-know-what-gamble in online casinos-date girls(thankfully no pills for that, guess they thought my natural charm would work)-eat viagra in wholesale measuresamong a whole lot of other things.. i was generally getting irritated because they keep coming even when i have it blocked under spam, so i was generally reading about this menace, when i came across this article, wish someone did it here….i have a feeling da vinci is rolling around in his grave, you can know why if you click here.
    now, a general question as food for thought, are you comfortable with the pace at which your general existence goes, would you like it slower or faster…i just want to know whether i am a majority or minority statistic….generally i fit into the former, coz whether i am checking out mutual funds or online railway reservations, i usually find a rediff article on it, in 3-4 days….kinda deflating sometimes, coz i get into it , thinking i am part of a select few…hehe.. reminds me of a phrase, “you are unique, just like everyone else”will leave you with
    manuscrypts trivia
    “Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic.”~ Anonymous